Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Kathy Bates Opens Up About Her Decision To Retire From Acting After 'Matlock' Reboot

Kathy Bates
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

The Oscar winner told 'The New York Times' that the upcoming gender-swapped reboot of 'Matlock' will be her 'last dance' after a successful, decades-long career in Hollywood.

Oscar-winning actor Kathy Bates is taking her final bow from Hollywood after a career that spanned over six decades.

The 76-year-old star of the stage, screen, and television told The New York Times that her work in the upcoming gender-flipping reboot of the TV show Matlock will be her last.


She told the newspaper:

“Everything I’ve prayed for, worked for, clawed my way up for, I am suddenly able to be asked to use all of it, and it’s exhausting.”

She added:

“This is my last dance."

Bates said she was initially planning to retire from showbiz after an unpleasant experience working on a film that she didn't mention by name.

But after reading the script for the Matlock reboot, she delayed her plans to bow out of the industry for good.

So what made her reconsider sticking around for a little while?

The actor said she was enamored by “the idea of playing a woman out to right wrongs” in the updated series that featured male lead Andy Griffith as criminal defense attorney Ben Matlock in the original series, which ran on NBC from March 3, 1986, to May 8, 1992, and ABC from November 5, 1992, to May 7, 1995.

The Memphis, Tennessee native moved to New York City to pursue acting in 1970.

Bates struggled to land acting jobs after having minor roles on stage and in a film.

She enjoyed some success in several stints as a featured actor in a variety of soap operas, including All My Children, One Life to Live, and The Love Boat throughout the 1970s and '80s, and she also earned a Tony nomination for her role in the Pulitzer Prize-winning play 'night, Mother in 1983.

But it wasn't until 1990 that Bates had her Hollywood breakthrough in the Stephen King horror classic Misery. Her maniacally marvelous portrayal of deranged super-fan Annie Wilkes—a role passed up by Anjelica Huston and Bette Midler—won her the Best Actress Academy Award. She was 41 at the time.

Her string of movie successes came the following year with Fried Green Tomatoes, followed by another King adaptation, Dolores Claiborne, in which she played the titular character and for which she was nominated for Best Actress at the 22nd Saturn Awards.


Other notable film credits included Primary Colors (1998) and About Schmidt (2002), both for which she was nominated for a second and third Oscar, respectively.

She portrayed real-life historical figures in the films Titanic (1997), playing the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, and Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011) as art collector Gertrude Stein.


She experienced a resurgence in TV with a guest appearance on Two and a Half Men playing the ghost of Charlie Harper, for which she earned her first Primetime Emmy Award.

Bates won her second Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie playing immortal racist Delphine LaLaurie in the third season of the Ryan Murphy anthology series, American Horror Story, Coven in 2013.

She returned for the fourth season of AHS, Freakshow, in which she played bearded lady Ethel Darling, the fifth season, AHS, Hotel, playing hotel clerk Iris, and the sixth season, AHS, Roankoke playing two characters: Thomasin "The Butcher" White and Agnes Mary Winstead.


In 2017, she starred in the Netflix series Disjointed, where she played the owner of a California medical marijuana dispensary.

Recent movies included The Miracle Club, with Maggie Smith and Laura Linney in 2020, and the movie adaptation of Judy Blume's coming-of-age novel, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret in 2023.


Fans were sad to see her go, but wished her well in her well-earned retirement.








The new legal drama series Matlock, developed by Gilmore Girls producer Jennie Snyder Urman, will air on CBS on October 17, 2024.

More from Entertainment

Jeff Ross
Mike Coppola/Variety via Getty Images

Comedian Jeff Ross Shares Photos Of Puffed Up Lip After Allergic Reaction To Ice Cream

Insult comic Jeff Ross revealed he had a medical emergency after a show Saturday night that resulted in a trip to the ER. However, he assured fans the show must go on despite "looking like Mickey Rourke at the end of The Wrestler."

Ross recounted the ordeal on Instagram, showing his swollen lip taking over his face from eating burrata ice cream after his Take a Banana for the Ride show in Mill Valley, California, near San Francisco.

Keep ReadingShow less
screenshot of Jesse Watters on Fox News
Fox News

Jesse Watters Offers Mind-Numbing New Claim About Masculinity—And Is Instantly Dragged

Problematic Fox News MAGA pundit Jesse Watters has made another bizarre claim about masculinity.

Having already taken exception with eating ice cream, drinking milkshakes, and taking bubble baths, Watters is now targeting tech jobs.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump with the Dodgers
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump Leaves Everyone Confused With Hilariously Bizarre Word Salad Tribute To The Dodgers

President Donald Trump was widely mocked after he welcomed the 2024 World Series-winning Los Angeles Dodgers to the White House on Monday with a bizarre, tangential, and rambling speech.

The team arrived at the White House on Monday morning, where Trump, in his remarks, praised two-way star Shohei Ohtani and infielder Mookie Betts. The Dodgers had defeated the New York Yankees in five games to clinch their second World Series title in five seasons.

Keep ReadingShow less
Donald Trump
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Trump Roasted After Giving Clunky New Nickname To People Criticizing His Tariffs

President Donald Trump was criticized after he pushed back against critics of his tariffs, coming up with a new nickname for the "weak and stupid" people who oppose them.

The Trump administration’s newly imposed tariffs on imports from various countries have unsettled consumers, triggered a trade war, disrupted global markets, and sparked widespread fears of a potential recession in the U.S. and beyond.

Keep ReadingShow less

Childhood Experiences People Thought Were 'Normal' But Weren't At All

Content Warning: Child neglect, child abuse, narcissism, gaslighting, people-pleasing, and other traumatic childhood experiences

It's important for us to work on ourselves, to continue bettering ourselves throughout our limited time on this earth, and a key way of doing that is acknowledging what we do not know, and working on that.

Keep ReadingShow less